Shanties from Florida

Subject: Shanties from Florida
From: GUEST,Fred Seidl
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 04:32 PM

I am looking for sea songs and shanties that have their roots in Florida. "Roll the Woodpile Down," "Johnson Girls" and "Way Down in Dixie," are fairly well known, but my list doesn't go much further. Suggestions, lyrics?

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 05:35 PM

Fred-

Here's a live one for you to harvest, titled "The Wreckers" from the glory days of the Key West salvage fleet: click here for lyrics and MP3 Sample!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 05:53 PM

Roll the Woodpile Down" has its roots in the southern States and the rivers served by the wood-burning river steamers; one version in Hugill mentions Florida in a verse, but it does not have its "roots" in Florida.

"Johnson Girls"- Source of reference?

"'Way Down in Dixie"- "roots" in Florida? I doubt it.

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 05:57 PM

Charley, much appreciated. Hadn't run across that article.

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 07:53 PM

I don't know of any, but for some reason Pensacola was prominent in those days so you might want to use that as a key word in your searching.

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 07:58 PM

Q-

There probably are a few more Key West songs but I haven't run across any. It's nice when you have someone there in the 1820's who takes careful notes of what's going on, even if he did muddle the transcription of the last verse.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 08:41 PM

Yes, too many, Charlie, wrote something like: "The crew (or the natives) entertained us with some of their songs...."

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 08:14 AM

"... but we sure did a whole lot of drinking and had a great time!"

Reminds me of the thank-you note Roll & Go received after performing a "concert" at a special event. "We can't remember what you sang but you were greatly appreciated!"

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 10:43 AM

S: Johnson Girls was collected on The Boys, a menhaden fishing boat off Mayport, Florida--recorded at sea (WPA Writer's Project, 1940. Subsequently recorded by The Boarding Party (with the deletion of two verses--a bit "salty".)

"Way down in Dixie" comes from the singing of the Deep Water Family who reported that it was sung on the St. Johns River while loading sea going ships with lumber. Another clue is one line says "she ran off with the circus clown." The same labor pool built railroads and set up circus tents for Ringling.

"Roll the Woodpile Down" is thought here to have come from the Florida Panhandle, either Pensacola or Appalcicola, the composition of African-Floridian river workers in ship building and cotton transport. Hugil's version is different from the one we do. For example Hugil has "a sailor's wage is never high," where as ours is "a black man's wage is...," and "yeller" girls becomes "pretty" girls. Ours comes from the singing of Nola Johnston, and I think her source was the WPA Writer's Project.

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 10:55 AM

Good song! Charley, thanks so much!
Fred

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 11:25 AM

Fred-

I've been told that members of the Boarding Party worked up a similar recording of "The Wreckers" for a Key West nautical museum but it was never released as a CD.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: John J
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 06:34 PM

Anything going on around Clearwater next week? I'll be in the area from 10th - 17th.

John

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: deepdoc1
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 07:35 PM

The Florida Folklife Collection has some albums and other downloadable resources. The Will McLean website is a good resource, and Gamble Rogers is just plain fun. Plenty of both on YouTube.

JimB

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 08:33 PM

About 1980, the Boarding Party went into a studio in Georgetown, and recorded 'Wreckers on the Florida Shore" for the Historical Museum of South Florida in Miami. 25 years later, Gail and I were in Miami to visit family, and went to the museum. They had a display area with a large sea chest and other nautical items, and when you pushed a button on the wall behind the chest, the song that we recorded played through speakers hidden in the sea chest. It was a strange sensation, because Jonathan Eberhart had died a few years before, and to hear his voice on the lead was somehow spooky. We played the song about three times before going on to see more of the museum. When I asked one of the museum staff about the song, he admitted he knew nothing about it..."it's been playing here for years."

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: Padre
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 08:36 PM

Sorry, that was me without cookie

Padre

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 07:56 AM

Padre-

I was thinking that it was you who first told us about the Boarding Party's recording of "The Wreckers" song. So it was a museum in Miami, not Key West.

Give a listen to my rendition, if you will (from the link above); I suspect we were channeling the same traditional "Come All Ye" tune.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 08:28 AM

John, I'm not in Florida just now, but two reliable sources are the calendars in the newsletters of the Friends of Florida Folk and the Sarasota Folk Club. Also, Gloria Holloway in Tampa keeps a lively schedule. Google will get you their websites. There is no Clearwater-only or even Pinellas County-only source that I know of.

Fred Seidl

Subject: RE: Shanties from Florida
From: John J
Date: 09 Jun 10 - 09:18 AM

Thanks Fred!

JJ